


There Are More Than Three Choices at the Crossroads

by Lostgoldenrose



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: BAMF Katara, F/M, Hakoda is a Tired Dad(TM), How Do I Tag, Let them say fuck, Lu Ten is a good cousin, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Ozai? A bitch, References to Past Child Abuse, Spirit World, Tags May Change, Zuko is full of angst, cannon divergence from Crossroads of Destiny, we’ll see how this goes
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-02-21
Updated: 2021-02-21
Packaged: 2021-03-17 19:00:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 4
Words: 9,332
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29597301
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lostgoldenrose/pseuds/Lostgoldenrose
Summary: The Dai Li decide Zuko is with the Avatar before Zuko can decide he’s with the Avatar. Now Katara has to drag an unconscious prince out of the catacombs and deal with the consequences along with the Gaang.There will be shenanigans, there will be angst, there will hopefully be romance, and sprits willing, an ending to this fic. Join me on this rollercoaster of a ride.*will try to update weekly but that depends on my memory and my buffer*
Relationships: Katara/Zuko (Avatar)
Comments: 30
Kudos: 76





	1. Decisions

**Author's Note:**

> What happens when we let characters swear, and also make a couple of decisions for them? A whole new timeline, that’s what.

He doesn’t speak to Uncle when he turns to follow Azula down the tunnels. Can’t. 

Not with his sister’s words whirling in his mind like some sickening hurricane. 

Not with the delicate touch of the waterbender still on his face. 

The whole experience of being trapped with her had felt… soft.

_ He liked soft. _

Azula was never soft.

Father didn’t like soft.

He shouldn’t be soft.

He burned the thoughts away with his sleeves. He could feel the adrenaline begin to buzz more and more insistently in his blood. There is a fight coming, no matter what he chose. 

_ Good, _ he thought,  _ it’s been too long since I’ve been in proper battle _ .

But a small part of him despaired at it. He was so tired of fighting. So tired of being afraid.

_ You are always afraid in Ba Sing Se _ , his mind told him.  _ Afraid of being found out. Of being hated. Of fucking up the one good thing to happen to Uncle. Afraid of a life of peace. Afraid of losing that peace. _

If he goes home he can stop being afraid. He can stop worrying about being found out. He can be  _ home _ .

_ Yes, _ he thinks, that’s what he wants. He wants to go home after three years away. He wants Father to be proud of him. To stop running. 

He just had to fulfil his destiny and capture the Avatar. 

The memory of cool fingers brushed against his skin like a breeze. 

_ I’m free to determine my own destiny _ .

He scrubbed the feeling off as the sounds of fighting got closer. 

They stood at an impasse, the four of them. Zuko, the fulcrum upon which the rest of the battle hinged. 

Zuko could not stop looking at the hope and fear that mixed on the waterbender’s face. He could not stop looking at the cold glint of victory in his sister's eyes. 

He knows that look. From the few times they trained together. From the corner of his eye every time he fell for one of her lies. From the night his mother disappeared. 

He doesn’t know that look. He’s only seen the waterbender in battle. From the first pure joy when she’d clumsily frozen his men to the deck of his ship, to the confident, determined,  _ capable _ glint in her eye at the North Pole.

But that’s not true, is it?

He’d seen his eyes reflected in hers. He’d seen the scars they shared on their hearts. He’d seen the quiet but fierce protectiveness in her eyes every time she looked at her companions. Seen flickers of it when she looked at him. 

She’d offered him healing.

And how his battered heart  _ ached _ for healing.

But that was once in all the time he’d known her. Known  _ of _ her, really. 

He’d known Azula his whole life.

Unfortunately for him, his blast of fire was too close to Azula. Or too far from the Avatar and the Waterbender. Or too weak to be convincing. Or too  _ something _ . 

But enough to be a threat if the Dai Li were to be believed.

He doesn’t realize what’s happening until it’s too late. He grunted as a stone hand crashed around his wrist, and threatened to topple him. He barely managed to dodge another as he grappled to blast it off. 

“What-?” he tried to shout over the building sounds of water, fire, air, and earth colliding. 

But the Dai Li are not ones to negotiate with someone already deemed dangerous.

He dodged and wove and spun in the air to avoid each hand that came for him.

“Stop!” he shouted, throwing flames to block yet more stone.

The Dai Li did not.

This firebender, brother of their leader or not, was resisting arrest. The Dai Li understand how little blood ties mean when it comes to power.

Zuko defended himself as best he could, for as long as he could, but it wasn't enough. He’s already off-balance as it is after seeing Azula. Add to that his strange imprisonment, Uncle’s capture, and the deadly battle taking place right alongside him, and it’s enough. 

Enough that he doesn’t notice the rock fist that comes fast on his bad side. 

Something hits him in the head,  _ hard _ . 

Hard enough that he seems to be knocked half out of his body. That must be why everything’s suddenly tilted. Why sound suddenly became muted and the colors too bright. 

The ground was coming up fast on his right side.

Everything went black before he ever met the dirt. 

~

Out of the corner of her eye, Azula frowned at the fallen figure of her brother. Sure he may have been a traitor, but it wasn’t necessary to kill him. Perhaps she should have been more clear about that to the Dai Li.

It didn’t matter much anyway. 

She’d tried to kill him plenty of times. So had Father.

Really, she was only annoyed that she hadn’t been the one to strike the final blow. What she could’ve said to Father. So dedicated to preserving the honor of the Fire Nation was she that, she had killed her own traitorous brother.

Again, no matter. She was about to kill the Avatar anyway. 

_ That _ was an honor that far surpassed getting rid of her stupid brother.

~

The world came back to him almost like a dream. Like his brain wasn’t quite catching what was happening around him. 

His head throbbed, and there was something warm and sticky leaking all over his face and getting in his eyes. 

With a groan he pushed himself up on aching muscles. Why did it feel like he’d fallen down a rocky ravine?

Wind buffeted his hair and made him blink even harder to see. He was in a cavern that was… too dark. Wait, weren’t caverns supposed to be dark? No this one had been lighter a second ago, what-?

Focusing on the scene around him, he felt his stomach drop. 

The waterbender looked terrible. She was scraped and bruised and her hair spilled in messy waves around her face. 

There was a small figure floating,  _ glowing _ in the air.  _ The Avatar _ , his mind supplied. 

He looked angry. 

Everyone else was frozen in awe. 

Except for one.

Azula was moving, slinking behind everyone, behind the Avatar. She looked determined, sure of herself. 

Struggling to his feet he followed as carefully as he could.

He had to- had to help her. 

Right?

She was his sister.

He was almost close enough to shout to her when he saw her sink into a bending stance. 

His eyes went wide.

He  _ knew _ that stace.

Her arms moved in deliberate circles.

Azula was going to  _ kill _ the avatar. 

A child, he realized.

His feet were moving before he could think. He didn’t want- he couldn’t- the avatar was a  _ child _ .

Azula didn’t stop moving, drawing her arms tight to her chest. 

“Lala no!” He cried. 

Azula turned at the sound of her childhood nickname. Her brother, beaten to shit, face covered in blood. 

Two thoughts occurred to her.

Either that was a ghost. Or he wasn’t dead and was still a traitor.

Azula did not take risks.

He saw Azula twist towards him. Saw the lightning crackling at her fingertips as she thrust her arm out towards him. 

And then everything burned blindingly, blindingly bright.

~

Katara missed the initial hit. 

She saw only Aang as he hovered menacingly above the cavern. 

Until there was a deafening crash, and across the cavern Zuko slammed against the crystals, flashing with tendrils of lightning. 

Azula stood with smoking fingertips and a look sharper than steel in her face. 

And then everything fell into chaos. 

The Dai Li moved as one, effectively snapped out of their stupor, and the Avatar responded in kind. 

The ground heaved like a living thing, and the elements swirled through the air like vipers.

Katara, no longer occupied by the Dai Li, ran.

The smell of burnt flesh hit her before she even got a good look, making her stomach churn dangerously. Black snow and tawny eyes pulled at her, threatening to suffocate her as she stood. 

Falling to her knees she pushed the thoughts away. She had a patient to tend to. 

Zuko lay bloodied and twitching beneath her, muscles jumping and ticking under the skin as if plucked by some sadistic puppetmaster. 

Katara swallowed, and pulled water to her hands. 

It wasn’t good. 

Broken ribs, large blooming bruises, a cut on his bad temple, still bleeding sluggishly, and that wasn’t yet including the lightning. 

She could feel the wreckage of his chi paths as she ran her hand over his body. His heart sputtered weakly under her palm, and even under the eerie light of the crystals she could tell he was too pale. 

The idiot was dying.

_ Shit _ , she thought numbly, starting to heal the worst of the damage,  _ shit shit shit _ . It wasn’t safe here, but… was it safe to move him? She wasn’t even sure he’d survive the next few minutes on the ground, much less survive the strain of… whatever it took for them to escape. Another explosion rocked the cave.

_ Shit, shit, shit, shit, shit _ . 

She almost laughed, if her friends knew how much she swore inside her head they’d probably never let her live it down.

The Avatar’s lights flickered, the vessel was still a child. A child exhausted from running, and fighting, and worrying. A child could not sustain the Avatar state for long. 

Aang fell, eyes drooping even as the air whistled past his head. 

_ Fuck _ .

Katara shot to her feet and sent a long tendril of water to snatch her friend out of the air. 

The move left her vulnerable.

She saw the bolt of blue flame headed towards her, and her muscles locked in indecision. Drop her friend? Or defend herself? 

She didn’t get any further than that before a wall of orange flame cut her off from Azula. 

General Iroh, Dragon of the West, spared hardly a glance behind him towards the waterbender and the Avatar. 

“Go!” He shouted, “I’ll hold them off!”

One last glance at the determination that settled over the waterbender’s face gave him all the reassurance he needed. 

The last Dragon fought. And the last Dragon bowed. But he was not, by any means, defeated.

The roar of water might’ve been the roar of blood in her ears for how fast Katara’s heart beat. Aang was slung across her shoulders, and Zuko was half cradled in her arms, head lolling limply into the water that kept him from slipping from her grasp entirely. 

She broke the surface and nearly cried at the sight of Appa already at the front steps. Instead, her knees gave out, and the weight of the two bodies she carried seemed impossible to take even a single step further.

“Sokka!” She called desperately across the stones.

Her brother was on the ground running towards her in an instant, Toph hot on his heels. 

“Aang,” she said shrugging the monk off her shoulders as Sokka reached them. 

“Katara, what-? Is he-“

“He’s fine,” she said, handing him off, “Avatar state took it out of him.”

“Well that’s great, but in case you haven’t noticed, Sugar Queen, we’re kinda in a hurry,” Toph snapped, “drop the laundry and let’s fucking  _ go _ .”

“I’m not-“

Sokka’s eyes widened as he finally recognized the figure in her lap.

“Is that ZUKO?” 

Katara watched the blood drain from both their faces. 

“Aw shit,” Toph muttered.

Katara gaped, trying to find the words and the breath to explain. 

“We can’t take him.” Sokka said without intonation. 

She felt herself flush in rage

“Sokka, I’m not leaving him, he saved-“

“He’s dead.” Toph interrupted. 

“What?” Her voice came out thready and weak, “no, he, he-“

“He’s literally deadweight, we can’t take him.” 

Her eyes hardened,

“If you think for one fucking second that I’m leaving him-“

There was an explosion as the Dai Li too reached the surface. 

Katara clutched Zuko tighter to her as she struggled to rise. 

“Fuck it,” Toph grunted as she bent the stone beneath them, lifting all four speedily across the courtyard. 

When they got to Appa she reached blindly, snatching Aang out of Sokka’s arms,

“Drive,” she commanded, launching him to land on Appa’s neck with an undignified yelp. Next she turned to Katara with a strange look on her face,

“Got him?” She asked in a voice too quiet and too gentle for Katara’s comfort. But instead of dwelling on it she turned her attention to gathering the still figure completely into her lap as best she could,

“Okay,” she croaked, “got him.”

Her landing was smoother than Sokka’s, but not by much. She winced at what the jostling would do to Zuko’s already delicate injuries. 

Toph landed with a thump behind her, and with a quick “yip yip” they were in the air. 

Katara slid unsteadily next to Sokka, trying to use him as an anchor as she dragged herself and the battered prince somewhere a little more stable. Obligingly, her brother held out his arm and helped her move until Zuko lay somewhat secure between them. 

“He saved Aang,” she said quietly, pulling water to glove her hands. “Azula shot him full of lightning.”

Sokka said nothing as he pressed his fingers to the Zuko’s neck. He felt the barest flutter of a pulse for a split second before pulling away. 

“Katara, you can’t…” he started gently.

“I-I  _ can _ ,” she insisted through the glow, “you didn’t see what they did to him, she just threw him away like-like he wasn’t…”  _ important _ . 

Katara practically ripped the vial of spirit water from her neck. The water glowed a vibrant whitish silver like moonlight as it whipped into a glowing disk in her palm. 

“Please work.” She muttered, pressing it to the starburst in Zuko’s chest.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So uhhhhh I’ve got a couple chapters buffer for this but even I don’t know how this’ll end. Which is unfortunate bc I’ve got like, actual fic ideas with the whole plot outlined and stuff, but this was the one that chose not to leave me alone. Hope you enjoy! (Also comments and kudos fuel me if you’re so inclined to leave some)


	2. Limbo

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Lu Ten is a good cousin, the author oscillates wildly in tone, and Zuko just wants to get some rest.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Day early update because I'm impatient.
> 
> Possible TW: The way Zuko acts and speaks could be interpreted as passively suicidal, proceed at your own discretion. 
> 
> 02/26/2021

Zuko blinked awake slowly. The sky was hazy orange, and the grass tickled at his bare arms. It was a nice afternoon, and all he really wanted to do was close his eyes again and take a nap. So he did just that.

Or, he would’ve if someone hadn’t chosen that exact moment to trip on him.

“Fuck!” they yelled, stumbling for balance.

Zuko grumbled and rubbed at what should’ve been a sore spot in his side. Strange that it didn’t hurt. 

A shadow hovered over him,

“Sorry, I didn’t see you there,” he said, offering a hand.

Blearily, Zuko blinked up into the face of…

“Lu Ten?”

His cousin’s face wrinkled in slight bewilderment, 

“Uh, yeah, that’s me. Hey, have we met before?” he asked, dropping his hand when Zuko didn’t take it.

Zuko blinked some more. His cousin looked almost exactly as he remembered him. His armor was a little more worn and his face had a slight scruff, like he hadn’t shaved in a day or two. 

“Uncle misses you.” he blurted.

Lu Ten’s eyes went wide.

“Zuko?”

“Yep,” he said, “It’s me… Zuko here,” suddenly self conscious, he rubbed at the back of his neck. His hand came back sticky with drying blood. Huh, that probably wasn’t good. 

“Agni above…” Lu Ten whispered, before grabbing Zuko’s shoulders, “What did they do to you?” he demanded, checking him over and frowning at every cut, bruise, and scar he found. 

“Uh,”

“How long has it been? Is dad okay? How old are you now? What  _ happened _ ?”

“It’s been… eight years,” he said, answering the easiest question. “I’m-I’m nineteen now.”

Lu Ten’s brow drew,

“You’re not in the war, are you” he said, plucking at Zuko’s Earth Kingdom browns.

“Er, no… not, not really anymore.”

Lu Ten looked up from his charred clothes expectantly. 

“Um, well I’ve- I’ve uh, actually been living in the upper ring with Uncle these past few months, and-“

“He did it?” Lu Ten interrupted excitedly, “Dad conquered Ba Sing Se and the war’s over?” He sat back on his haunches staring dreamily into the distance, “I wish I could be there to see it, but wait, what happened to you?”

Zuko swallowed nervously, looking away and rubbing at the blood on his neck.

“The war’s not over,” he started quietly, “after… after you died Uncle gave up the siege, and I think he was going to come home, but then Grandfather died and Father was on the throne and… and, um, mom was gone.” 

“So you’re crown prince?”

Zuko winced,

“I-I was but… I don’t know now. There was a meeting, and-and I wasn’t supposed to talk but a general was going to use troops as  _ bait _ and I couldn’t- I-I spoke out of turn. There was an Agni Kai,” he waved at his scar, “I didn’t realize… and then-then I was banished to chase the Avatar to restore my honor,”

Zuko flinched at Lu Ten’s sharp gasp.

“But-but he’s real! I-I found him and I chased him, but… there was a battle at the North Pole, and-and Zhao-“

Lu Ten spat on the ground,

“Yeah we heard of that sick bastard.”

Zuko blinked.

“Oh,”

“He caused quite a stir around here, you weren’t under his command were you?”

Zuko shook his head.

“Not really, he tried to have me blown up and then Uncle helped hide me as a soldier on his ship, but I left as soon as we got to the North Pole.”

“You  _ fought _ him?” Lu Ten asks 

“A little?” Zuko said sheepishly, “he started it.”

Lu Ten slapped his shoulder with a grin.

“You did good.”

Zuko smiled shyly at the praise. Really, it felt like he was a little kid again, basking in his cool older cousin’s approval. 

“So then what?” He prompted, “How’d you get to Ba Sing Se?”

“Oh,” Zuko muttered faintly, “well, father blamed me and Uncle for the loss, and he sent Azula to bring us back.”

“Little Lala?” he sputtered.

“Yeah, she can bend lightning now,” he paused for a moment to let his cousin gape, “but anyway, so Uncle and I went on the run in the Earth Kingdom and got into Ba Sing Se as refugees. We worked in the Lower Ring for a while at a tea shop, before Uncle managed to get his own shop, which was wildly successful, and then we got good enough to open in the Upper Ring and…” his hand bunched in the fabric over his lightning burn, “Azula found us again.”

The shock and pain in his cousin’s face almost made him regret saying anything at all.

“And dad?” he whispered.

Zuko shook his head, feeling a fresh wave of guilt and regret.

“Captured.” 

“Oh.”

“Yeah,”

The two sat back in silence over the news.

“At least he’s not dead,” Lu Ten said, “I’d probably have tripped over him instead of you if…”

“He’s gotten fatter since you last saw him,” Zuko said flatly, “tripping over him would be like tripping over a hill.”

Lu Ten barked a laugh, and Zuko grinned at his lap. He missed being happy with family. Lu Ten’s laughter faded into a slightly melancholy sigh, and they sat in peaceable silence for a long moment.

“I’m sorry,” Lu Ten said after a while.

“For what?”

“That our family’s fucked up.”

Zuko stared at him in shock, he’d never much considered that his family was anything out of the ordinary.

“Oh, uh, thanks,” 

Lu Ten nodded slowly,

“Who did it?”

“What?” 

“Who killed you, Zuko?”

His fingers twisted again in the fabric of his tunic.

“Azula.” He admitted eventually.

Lu Ten reached out and squeezed his shoulder. It was better than any words could have been.

Silence resumed. 

Zuko nearly fell backwards when a small ball of light popped up out of the grass. Lu Ten laughed at him before regarding the ball carefully.

“I wonder what the moon wants…” he muttered, reaching to pluck the ball from the air.

Zuko watched as it shimmered, flashed, and flit off into the distance.

Lu Ten shot to his feet, grabbing at Zuko to follow. 

“Lu Ten, what-?” He tried to ask as his cousin manhandled him along.

“You have to leave,” he said, ignoring any and all of Zuko’s protests. 

On the horizon he could start to make out a forest and a gate. 

Wrenching himself from his cousin’s grasp and planting his feet,

“Lu Ten, what the  _ fuck _ is going on?”

“You don’t belong here, Zuko, you have to get out.” His cousin insisted, reaching for him.

“What? No! I-I’m  _ dead _ I don’t- what do you  _ mean _ I don’t belong here?” 

“You’re  _ not _ dead!” Lu Ten roared, lunging for him.

Zuko tried to dodge, but his cousin still managed to snag an arm around him. 

“ _ What? _ ” Zuko squeaked as Lu Ten hoisted him over a shoulder.

“There was a mistake, you need to get out.” 

Zuko struggled against his cousin, but Lu Ten held fast, never slowing his pace for a second. Eventually Zuko gave up and went limp, letting his fingertips dangle in the long grass.

“But, but, I’m so  _ tired _ , Lu,” he whispered, throat tight with unshed tears.

“I know, Zuko, I know.”

“No you  _ don’t! _ ” He cried, “it was so easy for you! Your father loved you, everyone loved you and you were always so perfect! Uncle never declared you traitor, never ordered your death or your sister to kill you. You never had to be on the run! You never  _ starved _ like I did! You never had to question this stupid war, or hunt a  _ child! _ You never had to give up  _ anything _ , and I’m  _ tired of it! _ ” He shouted. “I just… I just wanted to go  _ home _ ,” he said miserably. 

With a heavy sigh, Lu Ten set him down, put a hand on his shoulder and waited for Zuko to look him in the eye. 

“You’re right,” he said, the coppery gold of his eyes shone sadly, “it’s unfair and what’s happened to you was never right. But you have to go back.”

Zuko squeezed his eyes shut, tears finally streaming down his face. Lu Ten caught him by the shoulder and held him in a tight embrace. It only made him want to stay more. 

“Why?” he finally croaked, “why do I have to go? Why do I  _ always _ have to go?”

He felt his cousin sigh,

“Because you haven’t yet made it to where you’re meant to be.”

Zuko gave a wet laugh,

“I don’t think such a place exists.”

“It will,” Lu Ten reassured him, “you’ve just got to get there.”

Zuko swallowed, holding his lost cousin tighter.

“Hey, remember what it said on that knife dad sent you?”

“Never give up without a fight.”

“You’re not done fighting, Zuko, and you won’t be alone. Not this time, I promise you that.”

Zuko nodded, and Lu Ten started to pick them up again. This time Zuko stumbled to his own feet and let Lu Ten lead him to the gate before the forest. 

On the other side of a gate waited a water spirit. She took the shape of a young woman, wreathed in shimmering ribbons of water that arced around her in a half moon. The spirit herself was glowing a gentle blue, translucent like her water. Two streams looped back from her temples, framing her face and disappearing into the undulating waves of her hair. Her hand was held out, the look on her face pleading. It was as if she were begging him to come with her, as if he would break her heart if he refused. 

Lu Ten squeezed his shoulder,

“If… if you see dad,” he said, voice strained, “tell him… tell him I miss him, and that-that he’s forgiven, okay?”

Zuko nodded mutely as his cousin pulled him into one last hug.

“You’re going to be great, cuz, I just know it.” he said, releasing him with a nudge towards the spirit.

With a last steadying breath, Zuko took her hand. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you all for reading! Again, this fic is purely self-indulgent so I hope you get as much out of it as I do. See ya next week as we rejoin the Gaang!
> 
> (Kudos and comments greatly appreciated, I read all of them even if I don't always know how to respond, you're all terribly lovely!)


	3. Limbo Pt II

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Katara sees some familiar faces.
> 
> 3/6/21

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Me, rewatching the show again on Wed and realizing I have to rewrite my entire buffer: oh, motherfucker  
> Me, last night at 1 am comin' in clutch with another chapter fully written: AAAAHAHAHAHAH YES! MY POWER IS IMMESURABLE, but also I should probably sleep and check on this in the morning to make sure it's coherent.

The silence stretched long. Zuko’s heart remained stubbornly still under her palm, but she couldn’t give up, not yet. 

Logically, she knew he was dead, but her hand refused to move. The center of her palm felt almost attached to his heart, like a gossamer thread, straining but still unbroken. She tugged at it gently, as if it might coax his heart to beat again. 

It tugged back.

Suddenly she was drawn into a hazy vision. Her surroundings swam as if she was looking from underwater, but everything was dry. In front of her appeared an archway similar to the one at the Spirit Oasis. Beyond it swayed golden grass that stretched on into the horizon. 

Her arm extended, palm up towards the field, and she could feel the slight tension of the thread pinching at her skin. She tried moving forward, but some invisible force stopped her just short of the gate. 

Before she could start to struggle in earnest a bright ball of light rocketed towards her, coming to an abrupt stop just before her face. 

“He’ll come in his own time,” said a warm voice as it shimmered and dissipated into the misty image of-

“Yue,” she breathed.

Yue smiled, pale blue eyes sparkling fondly. 

“It’s good to see you, Katara,” she said, “though I wish it were under better circumstances.”

Katara nodded, unsure how to respond when so many different questions and exclamations crowded her tongue.

“I understand you have been through much, but I have a few favors to ask of you.” Yue said, looking apologetic.

“Of course,” she said immediately, before remembering her manners, “it is an honor to serve the moon.”

“Don’t tell Sokka you saw me.”

“What?” She reared back in surprise. That was certainly  _ not _ what she’d expected the moon goddess to start with.

“He cannot know you saw me here, nor can anyone for that matter. I need you to treat this with utmost discretion.”

“But surely I can tell Sokka, right? He misses you so much, Yue. I can’t just lie and  _ not _ tell him I saw you.”

Yue looked sad. 

“There are a number of reasons I cannot allow that, Katara, chief among them is the fact that the other spirits don’t know that I’m doing this. They’ve lost interest in the human world and don’t see any reason to stop the war. After Zhao a few have come around, but I am still largely overruled. And I don’t… I don’t want to cause Sokka any more pain.” She added quietly.

“ _ Yue _ ,” Katara said almost chidingly, “Sokka was devastated to lose you, how could knowing you’re alright be a bad thing?” 

“Because if he spends his life looking at the moon he’ll never see what’s in front of him,” she said with a sad smile, “he still has a life to live, a life that I am no longer a part of, and it’s better that way. He’s letting me go, but if you tell him all the progress he’s made might come undone.” 

“Yue,” Katara’s vision swum for an entirely different reason now.

“Promise me you’ll keep a secret?” 

“Yeah,” Katara swallowed, “yeah I promise.”

“Thank you, Katara,” Yue smiled with something like relief, “the second thing I need you to do is fight for yourself.”

“What?”

Yue’s gaze softened sympathetically,

“Katara, one of your greatest strengths is how fiercely you fight for those you love, but it is also your greatest weakness.”

Her brows furrowed,

“How is that a weakness?” she demanded, “Yue, you’re the one who died to save your people and became the moon!”

Yue frowned, and if Katara didn’t know better, she could have sworn she saw anger flicker in her eyes for a split-second. 

“I still died, Katara.”

She swallowed, suddenly feeling very guilty.

“Sorry,” she muttered.

Yue waved it off,

“I have watched you take care of everyone but yourself. While I admire your strength, you are still mortal. You cannot wear yourself down till the point of collapse. What I need is for you to fight for yourself, Katara, fight for the things you want.”

“I want the end of the war.” she replied automatically.

“No, I meant the things  _ you _ want. Fight for the things that are just for you, Katara. Take it from me,” she said with another sad smile, “it’s worthwhile to be a little selfish while you’ve still got the chance.”

Katara nudged at a blade of grass from where she hovered above the ground,

“If you say so,” she replied quietly.

A cool hand rested on her elbow,

“You are a key player in all this, and that is because of  _ you _ . Because of who you  _ are _ , Katara. Not because of who people tell you to be. Do you understand?”

Katara’s eyebrow quirked,

“You mean like when I kicked Pakku’s ass?”

Yue giggled, seeming once more like a teenaged girl and less like an ancient celestial spirit. 

“Yes,  _ exactly _ like that,” she said, with a grin, “you were incredible back then.”

“Thank you,” Katara said, trying not to seem too pleased with herself. 

Yue smiled,

“I suppose what I’m trying to say is, you are most powerful when you listen to your heart, and when you don’t let other people hold you back. Remember that.”

Katara nodded solemnly. 

Yue beamed, just as the tension in her palm gave a sharp tug. Katara winced.

Yue’s eyes sparkled mischievously, as she glanced behind her.

“Here comes your prince,” she murmured, before turning back to Katara, “a last piece of wisdom before I go. The moon may wax and wane, but even when it is dark, it is still the moon.” And with that she winked out of existence, leaving Katara stunned and more than a little confused.

A sharp pinching in her hand brought her back to present. 

On the horizon she could see two figures approaching. One looked like a Fire Nation soldier, high ranking by the looks of his armor and ridiculous mutton chop sideburns. Even so, he had a kind face and a gentle demeanor as he supported a decidedly more bedraggled figure in scorched and tattered Earth Kingdom browns. With a slight ache she recognized Zuko, stumbling along. 

Even from so far away she could see the exhaustion that saturated his every move, as if it was a physical weight dragging him down.

Once they were close enough, Zuko looked up, eyes locking with hers. 

Beneath the weariness she could see that familiar determination in his eyes, flickering and mixing with a cautious hope.

Her heart soared. In the cave she’d seen him as a person for the first time. Someone just as lost and hurt as any of them in this war. Then she’d watched the haughty prince turned kindred spirit struck down by his own sister. 

Seeing him so remorselessly shot had lit a fire in her. A fire fueled by her fury at the Fire Nation. Fury at what they had taken, at what they had done. Fury that they had twisted someone so human into a monster with a permanent scowl, that spat hatred as easily as fire as he chased after them. Fury that he’d not had the chance to be the good man she’d glimpsed under Ba Sing Se. 

She would give him that chance, if only she could save him first. 

She twisted her hand, trying to pull him closer with the string, but the thread remained steadfast. 

“Zuko!” She yelled, “Zuko take my hand, I can help!”

But he didn’t seem to hear her.

She tried calling again and again as he got closer, but neither he nor the man beside him seemed to hear her. 

Finally they reached the gate, and Zuko let go of the man, scrutinizing her with a weary sort of awe, gaze coming to rest on her outstretched hand.

_ Take it, _ she begged silently,  _ let me help you _ .

The man next to him gripped his shoulder, saying something she didn’t catch. The sound warbled as if coming from underwater. Zuko nodded, letting the man pull him into a tight hug, muttering one last thing before releasing him with a nudge towards her. 

Zuko looked up into her face, and it struck her how  _ lost _ he looked. So young, and uncertain, and  _ afraid _ . 

She wanted desperately to reassure him, to protect the fragile hope in his eyes. 

He breathed, and took her hand.

~

Zuko’s heart roared back to life under her palm.

His body gave a shudder, and a small gasp, and she watched through watery eyes as the tint of color returned to his skin. 

“The Earth Kingdom has fallen.” She heard Kuei saying behind her. 

Darkness pulled at the edges of her vision. Sokka’s arm reached out to steady her where she didn’t realize she’d been swaying.

“We need to find somewhere safe.” She said quietly.

“We’ll find dad,” Sokka said after a moment, “he’ll know what to do.”

~

Hakoda decidedly did not know what the  _ fuck _ was going on. 

His son had just flown out of the sky on the back of the Avatar’s bison, and landed on his boat. 

To Hakoda, that was a relief.

What was not a relief were his passengers: an unconscious Avatar, a tiny but terrifying earthbending girl, the Earth King, the Earth King’s bear ( _ just _ bear, which was… well, it certainly wasn’t anything he’d ever heard of before) and on top of that, his daughter collapsed from exhaustion after healing the half-dead  _ Prince of the spirits-damned Fire Nation _ . 

Hakoda glanced at Bato to make sure he hadn’t completely lost his mind. Bato shrugged helplessly and stared at the same part of the deck he was staring at. Definitely not imagining things then. 

He sighed, and Bato gave him a comforting slap on the shoulder. 

Time for one hell of a family reunion. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So good news/bad news.  
> Good News: I'll probably keep regular updates.  
> Bad news (mostly for me): My buffer? she is kaput, dead, gone. I wanted to stay faithful to the character development in the show, so I'll be keeping roughly with canon until I'm not. But for now that means I've got a lot of rewriting to do. Wish me luck!
> 
> Thanks again for reading, and kudos and comments are greatly appreciated!


	4. Between Phases

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Transitions are hard.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey, all, ya girl Rose did it again. I did a little more research and read the inbetween comics and rewrote nearly all of my buffer again. I'm super sorry for the late chapter, but! It's a very long chapter to make up for that. The other good news is that I already have parts of the next chapter written, so I'm starting to oh-so-slowly expand my buffer again. Please enjoy!

Hakoda was immediately swept up as Sokka pushed the prince into his arms and picked up his sister, making a beeline to the hold. 

“Bato-,” he called

“Getting the healers!” He yelled over his shoulder, already running.

Hefting the prince in his arms, Hakoda hastened to catch up with his son. 

“I’m going to assume that there’s a very good explanation to all this,” he said. 

“You and me both,” Sokka muttered, shouldering his way past the crew’s hammocks.

Hakoda stopped and nodded towards a far hammock,

“We set up a new one for you before you went out, Katara can use it for now.”

Sokka spun on his heel and gently settled his sister among the furs, pausing to pull a blanket over her before turning back to Hakoda. 

Hakoda cocked his eyebrow,

“Uh,” Sokka asked, scratching the back of his head, “where’s the medbay again?”

“Come on,” he huffed good naturedly.

“Look, it’s not my fault I haven’t been on the ships in five years,” Sokka said defensively behind him.

“I never said it was.”

“Right, well… good.”

Hakoda filed that away for a later conversation. 

~

They arrived to a silent and empty medbay. Bato must still be rounding up the healer. With a slight grunt, Hakoda lowered the prince into the nearest cot. Not roughly, but none too gently either. 

If it weren’t for the dead silence of the hold, Hakoda would’ve missed the tiny gasp of pain that caught in the boy’s throat.

Frowning, Hakoda began pulling off the charred remains of his tunic. 

“So this is the Fire Prince, huh?”

He heard Sokka shift behind him.

“Yeah…”

“Care to explain…” he gestured vaguely at the wreckage before him. A starburst of angry burnt flesh glistened over the prince’s heart, his skin a tapestry of bruises, scrapes and scars, “this,” he finished flatly.

“Well,” Sokka started, shifting his weight from foot to foot, “As near as I can figure he’s been most immediately fucked up by his sister Azula, the princess. She kinda took Ba Sing Se and shot him with lightning.”

Hakoda nearly choked on air at his son’s casual mention of the fall of the Earth Kingdom and a type of bending he hadn’t even thought  _ possible _ .

“Is this,” he started, trying not to sound too strained as he faced his son, “normal for you guys?”

Sokka scratched his chin pensively. 

“Well the Earth Kingdom stuff is new-ish. I mean, accidentally inciting political upheaval isn’t  _ that _ far off brand for us. La, Katara started a rebellion on a prison rig in the first village we came across.”

Hakoda could feel himself getting closer to a heart attack. 

“And, I mean Zuko’s usually pretty fucked up, but he hasn’t been on our side before so we never really cared.”

“And he’s on our side now?” Hakoda asked carefully. 

“I mean, I think so?”

Hakoda sent a prayer to Kya for strength, and wished fervently that she were there to help him deal with world-saving children. 

“Katara did tell us he apparently saved Aang in the catacombs, so I’m guessing we can probably, maybe, sorta say he’s not as bad as we thought. Plus Katara refused to let go of him once she and Aang escaped, so,” Sokka shrugged, “we probably shouldn’t let him die a second time.”

Hakoda was saved from having to respond as Bato and their healer came bustling in, shooing them away from their patient. 

As much as he wanted answers, Hakoda  _ really _ just wanted to sit down and know that his children were safe. And maybe hug them long enough to make up for all the time he’d missed. If they’d let him.

~

Once back in the sleeping quarters, Hakoda listened as his son reccounted his adventures with the Avatar. 

Just as he remembered, Sokka’s storytelling was animated, and at times more than a little confusing.

~

“So the king of Omashu is actually a hundred and twelve,”

“One hundred and fifteen now,”

“Okay, the king of Omashu is actually a hundred and fifteen and conveniently the Avatar’s childhood friend, who, trapped you and your sister in some sort of crystals?”

“ _ Candy _ crystals, dad.”

~

“Sokka, I don’t think you  _ can _ get warts on the back of your throat flap.”

“Hey! It’s  _ my _ throat flappy, I know what I’m talking about!”

“Okay, son,”

~

“Is stopping a volcano eruption slang for something these days? Do I want to know?”

“No, dad, Aang really did stop an eruption with airbending.”

“Tui and La.”

~

“I have some choice words for the Northerners if they ever come out from behind that wall of theirs,” he said lowly.

“Good luck getting to them before Katara does,” Sokka laughed, “She nearly took Pakku’s head off the first time she fought him!”

“Wait, Pakku? As in the man your Gran-gran ran halfway across the world to escape from?”

“Uh, yeah, actually,”

~

“So that’s what happened to the moon,” he breathed, taking in the somber expression on his son’s face. 

“Her name was Yue.” 

~

“The bugs in the swamp tasted surprisingly like meat.”

“That’s great Sokka, but  _ how _ are we going to find these people?”

“It’s more of a ‘the Swamp terrorizes you until they find you’ kinda deal.”

~

“Those girls sound… formidable.”

“Yeah, and then the pink one wouldn’t stop  _ giggling _ until she tried to hit my head and broke her hand!”

“We always said you were hard-headed as a kid.”

“You joke, but it’s come in very handy, thank you very much,” Sokka sniffed.

~

“For what it’s worth, I think a new knot definitely counts as good knowledge.”

“ _ Thank _ you! See, dad, you get it!”

~

“This Suki sounds like some girl.”

“Yeah,” Sokka said, grinning in a dopey expression he suspected Bato knew well from his days wooing Kya, “She really is.”

~

He rubbed his son’s shoulder.

“You did good, son.”

“I know,” Sokka said, rubbing his face, “Jet was a real dick, but he shouldn’t have had to die that way.”

~

“And then the next thing we know, Katara’s busting out of the ground with Aang slung over her shoulders and her and Zuko looking like shit and refusing to let go of his corpse!”

“Corpse?”

“Oh yeah,” Sokka laughed half hysterically, “Toph couldn’t feel his heartbeat so she thought he was laundry at first. And then we’re escaping and Katara’s using her magic water and suddenly he’s  _ not dead _ and then she passed out and… here we are.”

Hakoda nodded slowly, staring at his daughter’s sleeping form. 

He felt he hardly recognized her now. They hadn’t even spoken yet, but gone was the little girl with coltish limbs at the start of adolescence. In her place was a burgeoning young woman, battle-worn and heartened. The way Sokka spoke about her, he wondered if she might be even more of a warrior than his son was. 

Sokka himself had done a lot of growing too, nearly as tall as Hakoda himself. He was more filled out, shoulders broadening, and muscles taking more definite shape under his skin. But even with the physical change, Sokka was still very much the young man he’d left behind. Wiser, and a little more serious, sure, but still full of his goofy personality and unusual ideas. 

He reached to place a hand on his son’s shoulder.

“You’ve done more than I could have ever dreamed, Sokka. You and your sister, and I am so,  _ so _ proud of you,” he said, meeting Sokka’s eyes, so much like his mothers, “I hope you know that.”

Sokka all but tackled him in a hug.

Tears fell down Hakoda’s cheeks as he squeezed his eyes shut and pressed a kiss to his son’s hair.

“I’m so sorry I left,” he murmured, “I missed so much, and you had to deal with it all on your own…”

“It’s okay, dad,” Sokka said patting his back, “I get why you had to leave, I really do, and- and we’re okay, dad, we did okay without you.”

“You shouldn’t have had to.” he said roughly.

Sokka pulled away, meeting him with a look that made him seem much older than his nineteen years.

“You had to go where you were needed,” he said simply with a shrug, “You did your best.”

Hakoda nodded, swallowing against more tears,

“I suppose I did,” he said, though he had the distinct sense that he hadn’t. 

~

Even without the earth beneath her feet, Toph could feel the Earth King fluttering nervously behind her. 

“Spit it out,” she snapped.

“Is the Avatar going to be alright?” he asked, sounding like he’d never seen anyone passed out before. Then again, he probably hadn’t. 

Toph huffed,

“Twinkletoes’ll be fine, your earthyness. Going into the Avatar state takes a lot, and I’d imagine that fighting the Dai Li and Sparky II Electric Boogaloo didn’t help much either.”

“Who-?”

“The Fire Princess.”

“Oh,” he said, still sounding worried, “is there anything we can do?”

Toph slumped at the foot of Aang’s bed, and started picking at her toe.

“Eh, I think he just needs to sleep it off. Sugar Queen’s the one who’s seen more of this before, plus she’s our healer. We’ll have to wait until she’s back in action to ask.”

“I see.”

“I don’t.”

She grinned as she felt him start across the small cabin.

“My apologies, Miss Bei Fong, I meant no offense to your or your condition.” he said hurriedly. Bosco grumbled in agreement. 

Toph snorted.

“Yeah yeah, just don’t pussyfoot around me and you’re fine.”

“Of course, Miss Bei Fong,” a pause, “So what  _ do _ we do for now?”

She shrugged,

“Wait for someone to wake up.”

~

Hakoda looked up,

“What is it, Ikiaq?”

“Fire Nation ships, Chief, lots of them, according to the scout. A scout ship should be here by tomorrow morning.” the younger man said as he passed the missive.

Hakoda frowned at the numbers on the page. 

“Gather the rest of the men, we’ll have to come up with a plan tonight.”

“Yes, Chief,” he said, hurrying off.

Hakoda scrubbed a callused hand over his face. It was going to be a long night. 

~

Katara woke to a gentle rocking and the smell of home. For a moment she thought she was back in the South Pole, and was sorely tempted to curl deeper into her furs. The illusion shattered when she heard the firm pad of feet across wood. 

“Snoozles? You in here? Is everything alright?” Called Toph’s voice uncertainly.

For whatever reason, Katara kept still, too tired to announce herself, but awake enough to listen.

“Yeah, over here,” her brother called back quietly.

She heard the rustle of clothes as he moved across the cabin to guide her. 

“Can’t see shit anymore, man,” Toph grumbled, sounding closer, “She still asleep?”

“Yup, Aang?” 

“Out cold still. I left him with his royal earthyness and Bosco.”

She heard a small rustling that she could only assume meant her brother was nodding. 

“No. Stop. The praise is too much.” Toph said dryly. 

“Sorry,” Sokka said sheepishly, “great job, Toph.”

“Well don’t stop now, I brought you something.”

“Seal jerky!”

Katara nearly gave herself away by snorting. Of course Sokka paid attention when there was food.

The cabin sank into amicable silence as Sokka tore into his snack with a happy sigh. 

“So… where is everybody? It seems awfully quiet around here.”

Sokka replied with a series of muffled words and loud chewing.

Toph sighed,

“At the risk of sounding like Sugar Queen, swallow before you talk.”

A loud gulp.

“Zuko’s in the medbay with the healer, and dad’s with the rest of the warriors, planning.”

“Shouldn’t you be in there with them?”

A rustle.

“Katara’s my little sister, Toph, I wanted to keep an eye on her.”

Toph snorted,

“Why? I’m pretty sure she can manage to sleep on her own.”

“I know, but… I don’t know, I’m the one who’s supposed to look out for her, and I left to be with dad. She had to deal with all of Ba Sing Se alone and she nearly didn’t make it out, and now I’m worried that something bad’s gonna happen if I leave her alone again,” a beat, “Please don’t tell her I said that or she’ll water-whip me into next week.”

“You have my word.” Toph replied sardonically.

Sokka sighed,

“Maybe I’m trying to make up for last time by skipping the war meeting by staying here with her. I guess I’m just still worried, is all. ”

Toph let out a put-upon sigh.

“That’s disgustingly mushy of you. Now get out.”

Sokka squawked indignantly.

“No I mean it,” Toph insisted, “I know how much it means to you to be there. I’ll watch Katara until you get back.”

“Really?” Sokka asked, sounding stupidly hopeful.

“Yeah,” Toph said, and Katara could practically  _ hear  _ the roll of her eyes, “what? I care about her too, okay? She’s a pain but she’s been good to me.” 

“Thanks!” Sokka exclaimed, scrambling to get up.

She heard him pause at the door,

“If anything bad happens, I’ll never forgive you, Toph.” he said, only half-joking.

“Yeah, yeah, you can keep being gross when you get back,” Toph said, “Now get lost and let someone else have a chance to look out for her.”

The cabin settled back into silence, and Katara pulled the furs over her head to muffle the sound of her tears.

~

In the war meeting, they had reached an impasse. 

“Hakoda, we can’t fight them. If we do, we’ll be wiped out. Our ships cannot handle another confrontation with the Fire Nation!” Bato said forcefully. 

Hakoda frowned. He knew he was right, but time was short, and they had no better ideas. 

“We don’t need to fight ‘em to join ‘em.” Sokka mused by his side. 

“You can’t  _ possibly _ be suggesting we switch sides.” Bato said incredulously.

“Oh, we don’t have to switch sides,” Sokka said gleefully, rubbing his hands together, “ just switch  _ boats! _ ”

~

When Sokka got back to the crew’s quarters, he found Toph asleep and Katara missing.

“Toph!” he roared.

The earthbender yelped, and promptly toppled to the side.

“Hey!” she yelled indignantly, “what the fuck was that for?”

“Where’s Katara?” He demanded, “You  _ said _ -,”

“She’s  _ fine! _ ” she yelled over him. 

“She woke up and went to check on Aang and Zuko.”

“Oh,” Sokka deflated a little, feeling his heart start to slow to a normal pace, “well, we have a plan now, but we’ll need Katara to get it done.”

“Great, why are you telling me?” Toph asked with a yawn.

“I… thought you’d like to know?”

“What I’d  _ like _ is some damned peace and quiet.” she grumbled, stretching back out along the wall.

“Do you want, like, a real bed or something?”

She shrugged,

“Nah, there’s at least a little bit of dirt on the floors. I’m good where I am.”

“O-kay,” Sokka spun on his heel and took his exit. 

Katara was hunched over Zuko when he found her. 

“Hey,” she started a little when he put a gentle hand on her shoulder.

“Hi, Sokka,” she said tiredly without looking up.

He peered over her shoulder.

If he was honest, he couldn’t tell if the guy looked any better than the last time he’d seen him. His skin, already pale by Water Tribe standards, looked ghostly under Katara’s healing glow. His torso was wrapped in bandages and salve that gave little away as Katara’s hands moved over them. His face, at least, wasn’t entirely lax. His single brow knitted ever so slightly in pain. 

“He looks less dead now,” he commented.

“That’s because he  _ is _ less dead, Sokka.” she snapped.

Sokka huffed a little,

“Hey, I was just trying to complement your healing skills, no need to yell.”

“I’m not yelling! I’m just-,” she sighed, “There’s just a lot of damage, and I don’t know if…” Her fists clenched, and she sent the water careening into a nearby bucket with a frustrated grunt. Sokka chose not to comment on the amount of ice he heard clunking around in there. 

“I don’t know if I’ll be good enough to…” her voice broke and he could see tears already starting to make their way down well-worn tracks.

Sokka slung an arm around her as she pushed angry fists into her eyes.

“Najaak,” he said gently, “you literally brought him back from the dead, and I don’t know about you, but I think that’s pretty fucking incredible. If anyone can heal him, it’s you, Katara.”

She nodded stiffly, sniffing a little as she scrubbed at her face. 

“Come on, dad and I came up with a plan for tomorrow and you’re going to need your strength.”

Katara swallowed, and pulled away for a moment to pull the blankets back up to Zuko’s chin. With a nod, she let Sokka lead her back to the crew’s quarters. 

He pushed Katara back towards what was supposed to be his hammock and went over to Toph in the corner. He nudged her with a foot until she grunted at him. 

“Time for sleepytime in a real bed, kiddo.”

“Fuck you.” she grunted.

“Nope, in the Water Tribes it’s rude to let someone sleep on the bare floor.” 

It wasn’t an official rule, but when you lived in a place as cold as the South Pole, leaving someone without enough furs during the night was close to outright murder. He figured that not wanting Toph to get trampled by exhausted warriors was a good enough reason to bother her.

Toph rolled over, grumbling.

“Fine, but I’m sleeping with Twinkletoes since his snores don’t give my earthbending a run for its money.”

“Hey!”

“Night, Snoozles,” she waved absently, shuffling down the hall. 

Sokka wasted a few more seconds glaring after her before shuffling to his own bed. 

“Budge over,” he said, shoving Katara aside to make room for himself.

“I hate you.”

“Say that again the next time you need someone to read a map.” he retorted.

She elbowed him in the ribs in response, and then rolled over so she could poke at the spot until he wheezed,

“Okay, fine, fine! I give, I’m sorry!”

She gave a satisfied grunt and rolled back over. 

~

“We’re going to flood, sink, and destroy the fleet. We’ll make it look like we’ve already been defeated by the time the Fire Nation gets here. With their guards lowered we should be able to sneak aboard at night and take the ship easily. The ship then becomes our disguise and we’ll be able to move much more freely after that.”

Katara could feel her knuckles whitening around the mouth of her waterskin. Sokka had already told her the plan, but hearing her father deliver it to the rest of the warriors was something else entirely. 

The crowd rang out with protests and lamentations, and whispers hummed through the air around her. These ships had been their homes for the past five years, through thick and thin. Many of the men had even built these ships themselves. It would not be an easy sacrifice.

It was, however, disturbingly easy to break her tribe’s own ships with her waterbending when the time came. Both she and Toph flooded and smashed the ships until the wreckage stuck out of the waves in jagged pieces.

Silently, she mourned another piece of her people destroyed by the war. Destroyed  _ for _ the sake of the war.

Once at camp she busied herself healing Zuko again, starting the slow process of mending his broken ribs. 

“Katara, it’s cold, come sit by the fire,” Her father called later that night. 

“I’m fine.” it came out with more heat than she’d intended, but she made no move to fix it as she stared at the stars glittering over the bay. The image would’ve been pleasant had it not been interrupted by the jagged black holes that the wreckage made in the water. 

“What’s this?” Toph asked, taking the mask Katara had handed her. 

“We’re using stink bombs, this is so you don’t gag and die when we use them,” she said, taking the mask from Toph’s hands to fix it tightly to her face. 

“Neat.”

The battle was slow to start, but quick to end. The crew was unprepared for any sort of attack, much less one by a master waterbender, a metalbender, and stink bombs so pungent that a few of the crew even fainted. 

Katara watched the ship’s crew, trussed and left in their underclothes on the beach as the men of her tribe loaded their supplies onto their new ship.

“It’d be more merciful to kill them.” she said.

Her father sighed beside her,

“Just because we haven’t received word back from General Yi doesn’t mean we’re leaving them out to die a slow death. We’re short on time, and this is the best we can do for now.”

Katara said nothing, and walked away. 

“Panik,” he called after her. 

She walked faster. 

She very quickly ran into a dusty Sokka, freshly covered in bee stings. 

“I thought you learned not to poke those nests after the first time.” she snorted, pulling water to her hands and wiping away the welts on his skin. 

“Yeah,  _ I  _ learned, but Bosco never did! I was doing him a favor.” Sokka sniffed.

She laughed.

“I take it your expert bear lessons ended well?”

Sokka rolled his eyes,

“No, actually, neither he or Kuei learned jack shit.”

“Shocker.”

“And you know the worst part? In the end Kuei ripped off his clothes, and declared himself a wanderer so he could ‘learn about the real world,’” he said, miming quotation marks, “and then jumped on Bosco and rode off into the sunset!”

“You didn’t stop him?”

“Do  _ you _ wanna babysit a grown man?”

She grimaced,

“No. Does dad know?”

“Yeah, I already told him.”

She pulled her hands away and returned the water to her pouch.

“What the fuck do you mean my clothes are the wrong color?” Toph’s angry voice demanded across the deck, where Ikiaq was patiently trying to get her to put on a red cloak. 

“We should probably go fix that,” she sighed.

Sokka grunted his agreement. 

“Looks like it’s gonna be a real adjustment for all of us.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Inuktitut:  
> Najaak- Sister (vocative)  
> Panik- Daughter 
> 
> This was a real monster of a chapter to write, especially getting the dialogue and character interactions right, while also trying to accurately rush through the time between Season 2's end and the beginning of Season 1 in the show, while still staying canon compliant when I wanted to. There's also been less editing on this one since I didn't really have time to set it down and come back to it with fresh eyes unless I wanted to push it back another few days. 
> 
> Anyway, NEXT week we get into some real juicy stuff, see ya then!


End file.
